Gold Coast SUNS General Manager - Football Operation, Marcus Ashcroft said that Day One of the Exchange Period produced a number of fruitful discussions for the SUNS.
“Opening day of exchange week is always very fruitful,”
“Even though I don’t expect us to be extremely proactive during the week, we had some encouraging conversations with a number of clubs,” Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft earlier confirmed that the Gold Coast SUNS have their eyes on yet another talented junior during the AFL exchange period with the club keen to do a deal with GWS Giants that will see 17-year-old, Western Australian Jaeger O’Meara join the SUNS via the mini-draft to be held following the exchange period.
"Jaeger is another elite young talent who is impressive both on and off the field.”
“We'll look at doing a deal that will allow us to gain the service of Jaeger through the mini draft,”
“We have identified that he is an extremely talented player who comes from another draft pool, stretching the age bracket of our talented players”
However Ashcroft confirmed that the club would not do a deal with GWS if the SUNS list management group believed the required deal would hinder the opportunity to build the strongest list possible for the Gold Coast.
“We put in place a list strategy a couple of years ago, and what we won’t do is deviate from that, we're not going to give away high draft picks or elite young talent to the detriment of our list going forward,” Ashcroft told goldcoastfc.com.au
Through the mini draft, the GWS Giants can trade the rights to the first of four mini-draft picks to any of the 17 other AFL clubs for national draft picks, experienced players or a combination of both as part of their list build concessions from the AFL.
The successful club can then use that pick on any of the 25 players born between January and April of 1994 who nominated for the mini-draft, with the highly rated midfielder the most coveted talent in that pool.
The only catch is that any player selected in this manner will be too young to play next year because AFL rules state a player must turn 19 in his first year of footy.
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